Police in California say a car dealer who repossessed a San Jose woman's Honda Accord left with something a bit more valuable: her 2-year-old son.

The child, Cyrus Lopez, was sleeping in the back of the car on Tuesday night when it was taken away because the boy's mother, Isabel Leuvano, was behind on her payments.

Leuvano says she was waiting for her daughter outside the running car when someone jumped in and drove off.

Police say the driver was 47-year-old Alberto Luna, the owner of Alberto's Auto Sales.

Officers located the toddler a half-hour later �� about the same time Luna told authorities that he discovered the boy.

Sgt. Ronnie Lopez says kidnapping charges don't appear to be warranted. But he says Luna should have checked the car thoroughly.

-----------------------------

Some of the first wild boar to roam free in England for 300 years have been raiding rubbish bins, attacking dogs and digging up green spaces in villages scattered around England's first national forest park.

Recent snow and icy weather has interrupted rubbish collection service in the Forest of Dean leaving tempting treats in local bins that have attracted the boar, which ordinarily forage for shoots, leaves, bulbs, worms and carrion.

Some areas in the forest, which is in the west of England close to the border with Wales, have not seen garbage collection since before the Christmas holidays.

Ecologist Martin Goulding, who holds a doctorate degree in Wild Boar Ecology, told Reuters that scavenging was a natural activity for the porcine raiders and that a rich harvest of food from the bins will encourage more boar to target trash cans.

-----------------------------

Some British bobbies have been reprimanded after they used their riot shields as makeshift sleds during the country's cold snap.

A passer-by filmed the bobbies goofing around on a snowy hill in Oxford and posted the clip on YouTube. It shows a policeman barreling downhill while another shouts, "Whatever happens, keep smiling!"

Rick Latham, who filmed the scene on Tuesday, said he was pleasantly surprised by the officers' actions. He thought they were going to scold him for trying to slide down the hill in a kayak.

Thames Valley Police Superintendent Andrew Murray said Thursday he had told the officers "that tobogganing on duty, on police equipment and at taxpayers' expense is a very bad idea."

But he added that snow brings "out the child in all of us."

------------------------------

Refuse bosses in Germany have been criticised for trying to promote recycling - with a calendar of scantily clad models.

 All of the girls are wearing or posing by recycled rubbish to illustrate how household and industrial junk can be turned into something useful.

"Recycling is hip, attractive and sexy and people need to see that," said a spokesman for the calendar's publishers.

But critics say the sexy calendar just makes the whole industry look trashy.

One critic says "This is serious work to try to save the planet not some seedy men's magazine."